SwiftVets.com

[Chance]

Kerry toasted on holiday
By Jesse Claeys, Journal staff writer

John Meyers, Sioux City Local 222, grills hot dogs as people shuffle through the line during the annual Labor Day picnic on Monday at Riverside Park in Sioux City. (Staff photo by Jim Lee)

Jim Wasser is now a union electrician from Kankakee, Ill., but years ago he was a swift boat sailor serving under the command of presidential candidate John Kerry.

"If John Kerry come up to me today and said, 'Jim Wasser, I have one more swift boat mission into hell and I need a LPO,' I'll tell you what, I would be John Kerry's leading petty officer and second in command again. I know under John Kerry's leadership I would have the best chances of coming back just like this county has the best chance to come back with his leadership," Wasser said Monday afternoon.

Wasser was in Sioux City Monday to support his "friend" and former commander in the face of what supporters consider a smear campaign by the Republican-connected Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group to discredit Kerry's military record. Wasser gave the keynote speech at the picnic sponsored by the Northwest Iowa Labor Council and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 222 at Riverside Park.


Wasser refuted claims that Kerry's war-time leadership is being misrepresented and was lacking at times and called the criticisms "untrue" and "lies." The man who said he was an unpaid volunteer for the Kerry-John Edwards campaign described dangerous situations his swift boat crew faced in the rivers and canals of Vietnam and said Kerry repeatedly displayed decisive and strong leadership.

Among the 13 "Band of Brothers" to stand on the stage with Kerry as he delivered his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Wasser said he wondered why Bush's "military brothers" haven't publicly defended his record. Wasser asked if Bush did anything more than receive a paycheck while with the Texas Air National Guard in 1972 and 1973.

"There isn't even a record of a flight physical," Wasser said to the crowd adorned with political stickers and T-shirts.

Not the only person to speak negatively about Bush's time in the White House, Wasser's speech was preceded by 22 others, local labor leaders and Democrats who are running for or hold a public office in the tri-state area.

Speakers presented the case the Bush administration has been unfair to U.S. workers as evident in recent changes in overtime compensation. A number of politicians also criticized Iowa leaders' handling of the Iowa Values Fund and possible changes to the state's worker's comp laws.

"Iowa workers stand to lose $15 million a year," Sioux City labor attorney MacDonald Smith told the audience members whom he later encouraged to call Gov. Tom Vilsack and complain.

Attendance at the annual Labor Day picnic was greater than past years, according to organizers. Local 222 President Marvin Harrington said about 3,000 people were at the picnic that featured free food, games and prizes. Woodbury County Democratic Party Chairman Al Sturgeon said the crowd demonstrated how important workers consider the upcoming elections.

"Hopefully this is symbolic of the type of turnout we are going to have on election day," Sturgeon said. "I think labor is more united than they have been in a long time because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this administration is more anti-labor than just about any in my lifetime."
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Chance

[NortonPete]

>>>Attendance at the annual Labor Day picnic was greater than past years, according to organizers. Local 222 President Marvin Harrington said about 3,000 people were at the picnic that featured free food, games and prizes. Woodbury County Democratic Party Chairman Al Sturgeon said the crowd demonstrated how important workers consider the upcoming elections.

"Hopefully this is symbolic of the type of turnout we are going to have on election day," <<<<<<

Now how many "likely voters" will show when the free food and prizes are taken away.